Think again! Back in 2008 a federal appeals court said the US Polo Association (WHO REALLY PLAY POLO!!) could keep it’s logos after Ralph Lauren (NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SPORT!!) took them to court over a trademark dispute. See a post I did about it back then. But this was not the first time RL thought they own everything polo, and it wasn’t the last. Just recently another company who is truly associated with a sport(this one being BIKE polo), Chunk Clothing, is being pressured by Ralph Lauren’s lawyers over some bullshit. There are a couple of things that make me laugh. One, way back when Mr. Lauren had an idea to create a brand he had an early thought to call it “Baseball” but later changed his mind in favor of “Polo”. For the upper-crustiness sound of it I’m sure. And second, although founded in 1967 the company never sponsored a real polo team until briefly sometime around 2009. Basically just biting on the culture of a sport to sell overpriced clothes that are made in China. Way to go!

I’m planning on going to this to visit the Outlier people and Thomas of Horse Cycles. Also to check out all the other stuff, I think I’m going to take my camera. And there are a couple of after parties. One at the Chrome store and a one at the shop of Horse Cycles in Brooklyn.

As this blog approaches its two year mark I wonder if the future will look anything like the past.

I love bike polo. It’s as easy as riding a bike and it’s as stressing as doing eight things at once, while riding a bike. I always wanted other people to play bike polo with. And in some way I thought if I could show others what this sport is, what it looks like, how it’s played, and how many others that love it too, then I might never be at a loss to share a game with new, or old, friends. My history of using the internet to promote bike polo goes back further than when hardcourtbikepolo.com started in February of 2008. There were a few places I used going back to 2006 but the idea of my own blog seemed to be the best way to meet my goals. I wanted to be found easily, have the basic info available, like rules and how to build a mallet. Also to keep track of the variety of aspects close to bike polo such as news, events, products, and videos. And last but not least to show my photos. I like the way bike polo comes across in photography. I’m not a good writer in fact I’m terrible but when it comes to conveying ideas, I think the images of riders leaning on each other just to hit a little red ball, or the crossing of mallets so close to spinning wheels, arms stretched, teeth showing, or the shots of a small corner of the court with all six riders packed in and none are frozen in a parallel line to any other but all eyes are fixed on that little red ball. That ball is like a fox on a rail for us, for 10 minutes nothing means more. I love to even just watch bike polo.
As this sport has taken off in the last two years I’ve spent a lot of time on the internet, too much, just to keep up with all the growth and to do what I can to keep others up to date about it’s growth. I guess it’s been good. I have never said no to an interview or held my breath too long when I thought some shit needed to be said. I guess maybe I think I’ve tried to encourage others to try bike polo if they feel like it. But now I feel discouraged to be that person. I don’t feel discouraged to play, just to do the other things I’ve done besides play. Because this site that has my name on it, the biggest thing that I wanted to do is to add original content, I never liked all the blogs that do nothing but repost some content from some other site over and over again. If I don’t have original content I don’t have a reason to do this. Since most of the time I only write a little and try to post my best photos I consider my photography the base of my content. But, and this is the reason for all of this, I don’t feel like posting my photography of bike polo anymore. For two reasons. One, I don’t get the response I’d like to get. Because I can feel satisfied with a good photo wither it’s posted or not, the posting is really just a waste of my time. Sometimes it’s like I post them and then they sit there silent, almost like the energy is gone. The other reason is when I do post a photo someone will quietly swipe it if it’s of them or if it suits their need then chop it up, crop it to their liking and not tell me it’s being used or give credit.
There are other reasons too, a few, but there isn’t much reason to go over them here beyond saying that I’ll be working on other projects. At best I’m just going to take a break from this for a while, it is February after all. I have not posted anything original in a month so there has been nothing on here that can’t be found somewhere else. And like I said. I’m not a fan of sites that just repost shit from other sites. That being said there might be some reposting going on here because I’ll usually repost suggested topics upon request.
At worst this site will be static for however long.
This site will stay up at least two more years, I just renewed the URL. Maybe I renewed it for 5 years, I forget now.

That being said here are some of the links I look at when I want to see what’s going on in the poloverse.

As this reaches it’s two years of existing I had to move the site from a friends server to a new one. I made a few changes and I’m still working those out. During the move some things got lost. Like the photos in the how to build a polo mallet section, and a few images in older posts from near the beginning. I posted things the wrong way back then and they did not stand up to the switch. I’ll try to get it fixed.
I’m running a new theme for the site, that’s why it looks new. Tell me if it’s terrible. In the upper right corner there are a couple icons that will appear if you float the mouse there. They change the width of the content and the font size. Maybe find one that works for your screen and tell me if there are any problems. (for me I had to set the content to the narrow setting to be able to adjust the font setting. Then I changed the content width to fit the screen)
I added a calendar that I’m still trying to figure out, and a weather widget set to NYC.